English
group
Group comes from French groupe ‘cluster, group’, from Italian gruppo, groppo ‘a knot, heap, group’, and ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cruppus.
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*cruppusreconstructed
- Italianc. 1300–presentgruppo‘a knot, heap, group’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgroupe‘cluster, group’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918group
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*cruppusreconstructed
- Italianc. 1300–presentgruppo‘a knot, heap, group’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgroupe‘cluster, group’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918group
Earliest quotation: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing…”
The story
In the "group theory" sense, calqued from French groupe, a term coined by the young French mathematician Évariste Galois in 1830.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-
through Proto-Germanic *kruppaz ‘a group’
through Italian gruppo ‘a knot, heap, group, bag (of money)’
Today it means
noun A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Vulgar Latin *cruppus / group